Dreadlocks in the Dust

The discovery of an African American Civil War veteran's grave in an Australian cemetery reveals a story of love, struggle, and survival across continents. While wandering through a cemetery, I stumbled upon the neglected grave of a Buffalo Soldier. He had once fought with the 26th Coloured Infantry Regiment in the War of Slavery. After that, the record fell silent. From this mystery grew a novel that blends history, fiction, and truth. This is the story of a man who lived a life of extraordinary turns. He worked on great ships that carried him across oceans to foreign ports. In China, he walked through the Forbidden City and caught the attention of the emperor. On the island of Tanna, he loved a chief's daughter but lost the trust of her people, forcing him to leave. Three times he found love, and three times fate demanded its price. His journey eventually carried him to Queensland, where the harsh weight of the White Australia Policy shaped his destiny. He laboured on the land, faced prejudice, and raised a son who would one day march off to war. Along the way, he crossed paths with the buried stories of other men like John Joseph of the Eureka Stockade, and the struggles of Indigenous people whose suffering reflected his own. This is a novel of exile and resilience, of fleeting joy and enduring sorrow. From the battlefields of America to the cane fields of Queensland, his journey ends quietly in Melbourne, where his grave lies far from the soil of his birth. Part history, part imagination, this is the tale of a forgotten life one that still speaks to the truths we inherit today.